Book Review: The Art of the Start
Who, What, Why
The Art of the Start: By Guy Kawasaki.
This is a more recent book I picked up. Guy was one of the leading managers for the Apple Macintosh in the mid 90’s. He seems to be a hardcore entrepreneur and a pretty bright guy; He definitely knows his stuff.
Why would you get this book? I’d say for anyone thinking about starting a company or going into business for themselves. In such a venture this type of information is invaluable. Guy basically sums up his personal knowledge and experiences and presents it all throughout the book.
What I liked
I like how practical the book was. I’m a very pragmatic guy, I want to know whats going to work best because with anything I do I want to do it in the most efficient way. He takes a very straightforward approach in explaining various subjects. I liked the slight tint of humor also that he’s portrayed in the book, it gave it a very “REAL” effect. And I also very much liked how at the end of every “chapter” there was a small Q&A session of what the chapter was about.
Book Summary
The book goes over the many aspects of “starting” a company or going into a business for yourself. Various chapters cover:
- The art of Bootstrapping
- Writing a business plan
- Pitching
- Positioning
- Recruiting
- Raising money
- Partnering
- Branding
- Marketing
Being that guy currently works for a venture capitol company, he is able to take his real world experience from seeing startup after startup come to him for investment. Thus he is an excellent position to tell you works and what DOES NOT work more importantly. Real World experience, real world knowledge. As I said above another great thing is at the end of every chapter he gives a short Q&A session with possible questions a reader might have related to the chapter.
Also throughout every chapter are formula’s related to common failings related to startups and how to avoid those formula’s with opposite formula’s to generate success or at least give you a better chance. He even goes on to give flashbacks and lots of analogies to his Apple days or days of previous employment with various companies. Like I said, real world knowledge, real world info.
I would definitely recommend anyone looking to get into business, startup a company or pursue a strategic venture take a look at this book and what it may have to offer you. I’ve booked marked many pages and learned quite a lot and at the same time enjoyed myself with his style of writing.
.
Posted on November 25, 2005
Filed Under Books Reviews, Business, Business Books, Entertainment, Productivity
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I'm Marston and here you'll find my rantings, rhetoric and other useful info. I dig tech, photography, quantum physics and organic food. I'm the founder of SugarStats.com and thats my days developing.
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I read that book just before I started moving on my personal venture. I loved it. Kawasaki has real command over the English language and a great understanding as to the real “why” for venturing into business.
It was refreshing to read something that wasn’t full of do-it-yourself pipe-dreaming or pure dollars and cents bottom line thinking.
It really makes you think, ya know?
I’d also recommend “The Cluetrain Manifesto”. It’s about marketing and internal company culture. Rather than deliver techniques, it more or less focuses on a philosophy. It sounds weird, but check it out sometime. You can see it on the web here: http://www.cluetrain.org.